


Checking Out

by oonaseckar



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men Evolution
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Gen, M/M, Retail Jobs, supermarket
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:27:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22350310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oonaseckar/pseuds/oonaseckar
Summary: Erik's working on a supermarket checkout, funding his post-grad degree.  He has avery specialcustomer.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. retail jobs suck ass

Erik's waiting for his regular customer, and it's got him all amped up and on the edge of his (old, knackered, frayed swivel-chair) seat. Now, that may make him sound like a street-corner whore, but that would give quite the wrong impression. He sees him about once or twice a week, and he gets all excited about it every time. He likes to give him good service: he likes to think that he gets better service from Erik that he gets from anyone.

He likes to think that this customer enjoys it as much as he does.

Which probably still gives the wrong impression. Erik isn't a street-corner hooker, and he isn't a classy escort with an agency and a swish apartment, either.

He's on the checkout in a cut-price supermarket, a nice respectable boy in an overall and a hairnet, working odd shifts and part-time to help offset his engineering masters' college expenses. Hah, see, never make assumptions based on first impressions.

And right now he's halfway through his shift, and getting to be a little bit on edge. It's a Thursday evening, and he usually sees his regular guy on a Thursday evening. But not every single time, and he can't absolutely rely on the dude appearing. Sometimes he comes in on a Monday, too, though, and that's why Erik's getting more than a little bit anxious. Because this Monday evening just gone he didn't show at all, and the Monday before, and Erik's a little bit worried that it's a sign of something.

Erik's concerned that it means his regular is getting tired of him. Maybe he's found another fancy-fella: someone who puts his purchases through the register quicker, who packs them for him too, who has better hair and the physique of someone who has time for the gym, and a more flattering overall? A guy at another store, with lower prices and better selection and higher quality?

It's ridiculous, though. No other superstore is better than Erik's store! And he knows that it's ridiculous, when he looks up from putting through the current customer's items and handing him the receipts from his card payment, and sees that a new shopper has joined the end of his queue, waiting patiently third or fourth in line.

It's him. It's Erik's regular guy.

And he smiles widely at the guy, a broad and dazzling grin, before turning back to the next person in line, loading up their shopping for the week on the conveyor belt. And hell, does he move his ass and put this guy through at a scorching speed, and the next one too, and the little old lady after him into the bargain! If he was getting paid on the basis of throughput and piecework then he'd be loaded after the next ten or twelve minutes work.

But it's worth it, even though he's almost breathless by the time that he's finished. And then he lifts his head, calling out a casual, “Take care!” after the last customer wishes him a nice evening on autopilot. And he looks at the one he's been waiting for, and feels the faint smirk that plays his lips, pulls them taut.

And he smiles at Erik too. God, this guy is gorgeous. And Erik still doesn't know his name –- just refers to him as 'Regular Guy' when he thinks about him. And it's got to be admitted, he thinks about him an awful lot lately. Quite often during his bathtime routine –- he's been taking a lot of long baths lately. And at night-time under the covers, and in the shower where his landlord has just, fortunately, installed a super-duper new power-shower head, which is sure coming in handy...


	2. 'Satisfaction Guaranteed'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik's read the company handbook. That doesn't mean he lives by it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is the first ever sign erected _/cough_ at Walmart.

But now, he's actually here, and that's even better. And he continues to smirk at Erik, as he begins to empty out his trolley and place his items on the conveyor belt, carefully in order one by one, most heavy and bulky and solid lining up all the way back to lightweight vegetables and noodles and such. Gorgeous, he is _gorgeous_. Light chestnut, well barbered hair, exactly the way Erik likes it, a nice lightweight dark suit and dress shirt, open-necked, a little on the short side, but built with nice shoulders and a chest and abs that are clearly toned and gym-trained underneath the layers of business suiting. He's a little upmarket and over-dressed for this particular venue, but what of it? Probably he just popped in the first time, weeks ago, when he'd forgotten a pint of milk or just wanted a magazine or some gum. But now he's Erik's regular, back in once or twice a week.

And Erik likes to think that it's _him_ he keeps coming back for.

“Hey there,” Hot Customer says, and his voice is sexy too. Dark and smooth and low, rolling the r's like he has a little exotic mediterranean blood –- although he looks a little more WASPy than that, more like a college professor than like the hero out of one of the romance novels that Erik loves to read--. No, what Erik means, is one of the romance novels he borrows from his Mom to give to his female co-workers, Storm and Jean. For when they're having some private time. Right? 

“Had a good day so far?” It's the usual polite inquiry.

“All the better for seeing you,” Erik responds, and he could hug himself with the secretive private thrill of it. That's _all_ he says, and all that Erik says, and that's all the conversation they ever have, until everything's been put through the register and it's time for this dude to put his card in the reader and pay up for his pleasure. It's their little routine.


End file.
